Ex-CEO takes over as South Korean president

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His inauguration speech was packed with pledges taken from his campaign for December's election which he won by a landslide to end 10 years of liberal rule marred by slow economic growth.

"Although it is going to be difficult and painful, we must change much more and much faster," the 66-year-old conservative told an estimated crowd of 60,000 people that included Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Economic revival is our most urgent task," he said, vowing to seek out new engines of growth to raise the economy and create more jobs, promising to ditch what he called the ideology of the outgoing government and replace it with pragmatism.

Lee, a prominent ex-construction company boss whose move into politics included a popular stint as Seoul mayor, said the world's 13th largest economy was at a crossroads and urged South Koreans to be more positive to change.

In reference to the labour strife that has plagued the economy for years, he pressed both unions and management to cooperate more.

And he pledged to free the economy of bureaucracy and make life easier for businesses which complain that they were stifled under the previous liberal government.

Lee, whose campaign focused largely on promises to nearly double the country's economic growth, said South Korea must also be more open to the outside world.

The ceremony, the start of which was hosted by two popular comedians, included traditional music and a nod to more modern tastes with a performance by a group of breakdancers. It was due to end to the sound of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

Lee underscored his campaign promise to improve relations with the United States, which maintains close to 30,000 troops in the South but with whom relations in recent years have at times been prickly.

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